Highlights of the past 2 weeks.....

Let's see:

1) Could barely walk after my tri and my knee still hurts. Thank goodness for co-workers that know how to fix me.

2) Lunch with my new pal David at Blue Goose, great mexican food. Excellent queso and a killer brunch selection. I highly recommend. Next time I will try the 'ritas.

3) Bought Transformers the Movie. Yes this is a highlight, I was a Transformers freak as a child and the movie was awesome. Ask anybody.

4) Sox won the ALCS in 7 games and will now demolish the Rockies in the WS. TOo bad I moved right before all this is going down AND the Pats may have the greatest NFL team of all time. Brady and Moss are ridic and my boy Wes Welker is killing people too.

5) Bowling with the work crew. Too bad I suck at bowling.

6) Dinner and Grey's with Lauren. Can't stand George or Meredith. Private Practice is getting better.

7) Dinner and a movie with Lauren. "Gone Baby Gone", set in Dorchester, MA. I felt like I was back in Boston after I walked out of that movie. Great movie BTW, strong language, but very well done. Directed by Ben Affleck.

8) Grilled or baked salmon 3 nights in a row. Seriously? Yes, thank you Sams. Excellent salmon on the cheap.

9) Finally finding (I think) a small group to go to.

10) Finally dropping below 10% bodyfat. According to Lloyd's 7 site skin fold test, anyway.

11) Did I mention Salmon?

12) A nice little Saturday coming up. Maybe a some go carts, the driving range, a bike ride, dinner and a movie at the park. I don't know yet, will there be enough time??

13) Pope and Carrie coming to town in 10 days, and going to a the Mavs season opener and maybe a Spazmatice show with them too.

Lowlights:

1) Texas Tech football. Period.

2) Sore glutes, hips, piriformis, knees, and back. Aye caramba!

3) Being at work at 5am every day. Wow that's early. Good thing the clients are awesome or I would fire them.

4) Texas Tech football. So bad they are listed twice.

5) Beau having something come up and not being able to hang with his big bro.

Tri Time

We did it, Lauren and I survived the innagural US Open Triathlon. Yes, even though it took me 2 hours and 33 minutes, I did survive. The swim (800M) plus the first transition took me about 40 minutes. Lauren kicked butt and finished the whole Tri in 2 hours and 17 minutes(I think that’s right). Yep, she owned me, and you know what, I am really proud of her. I know that in the spring she’s gonna break 2 hours on a sprint Tri and probably kick butt at the Olympic Distance (no pressure Lauren.) I am glad we did the Tri though. It was a lot of fun training and preparing for it, and finishing an event like that gives you a great sense of accomplishment, because Lord know I wanted to quit about every 20 meters in the choppy, nasty water of Joe Pool Lake. But I didn’t. And I’m not nieve enough to think that I did any part of that race without help from above. I spent half of the bus ride from Reunion Arena to Joe Pool praying for the strength to finish the race. Lauren thought I was so nervous that I was sick. For those of you that don’t know, my calves cramped up really bad Thursday night and I could barely even walk on Friday and was still a little gimpy on Saturday. I was seriously worried I would cramp up in the water and have to be pulled ashore by a rescue boat. No way I made it through that race without some divine strength. My calves didn’t cramp up once during the whole 2.5 hours. Now my quads and hamstrings, that’s another story. You think maybe I was a little dehydrated?


Overall it was a great experience. Once I loosened up on the run I probably finished my last mile in about 7 minutes. Afterwards we enjoyed an awesome mexican food lunch (thank you Bob and Johnny), and then napped the rest of the afternoon and went to church and had a big fat burger with bbq sauce and cheddar cheese. Guess it was ok to eat since I burned over 2600 calories during the tri, plus whatever I burned in the hours immediately following. Probably 3500+ within 5 hours. Crazy.


Another fun part of the weekend was that my friend Mike Pelaggi (Holla!!) was in town from Beantown, aka Boston, aka Dedham. We got to meet out Friday night for some beeahs at Pete’s Piano Bar. Fun times. Good to see Mike but poor choice of pre-event carb loading. I think you are supposed to carb load on pasta, not on Miller Light. My bad. Also probably shouldn’t have had around 2 bags of chips with guacamole, salsa, and cheese dip on Saturday during the Tech/A&M game (WRECK EM), hours before the Tri. Nice work Eric, you are a genius. Anyways, it was great to see Mike and hang out. Too bad we didn’t get to go to the Pats/Cowboys game with him like we had originally wanted to do. Probably best since it was a struggle to get up off the couch Sunday after the Tri. At least the Pats won.


So, a busy weekend, but an awesome one. I am attaching a pic from after the Tri. Enjoy!

Finally an update......

So, I know you all have been wondering what I have been up to. Well, alot actually. I just got back from a long weekend that included hanging out in downtown Dallas with old friends, attending the Village Membership class, attending the Youth Group's Fall Retreat, FOCUS, down in Cleburne, or Glen Rose TX to be more exact, working 8 hours today, and getting lost in between Dallas and Ft Worth, which is not half as cool as getting lost in between the moon and New York City. For those of you that are young, that last reference was to a song in the 80's by Christopher Cross, it was on the "Arthur" soundtrack and very popular. Overall a very eventful weekend, plus Tech and A&M won (don't ask, yes I support them now in a small capacity).

So, overall life is fantastic. I thank God every day for the people he has placed in my life here and also for bringing me here. I am also thankful for the times he kicks me in my balls and shows me how jacked up I am and things I need to work on. Which is ok, because I understand that life full of him is life full of joy, and that whatever happens to me, if I am following him and in his will, then he will take care of me. Make sense? I love how he showed me my pride today, let me simmer, blow up, and cool back down and then spoke through someone else on why he lets things happen to me, and that just makes me love him more. I think I almost broke my fist today punching the ceiling of my truck i was so mad, and for those that know me, I don't really get mad like that often at all. He even hinted at his plan to break me and let me blow up the night before when I was at the youth retreat and opened up my bible and saw some old passages in 2 Corinthians that I had highlighted several years ago, 12:7-10

"To keep me from becoming conceited because if these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord ti take it away from me, but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG."

Man, how hope I can be that faithful, and that blessed to constantly be insulted, put through hardships, and difficult times. Only so that I can more fully see how much I need Jesus in my life and be more passionate about him and build a stronger relationship with him. I also need to boast in my weaknesses more like the fact that I am a prideful, vain, insecure, and lustful person. I will totally own up to all of that and say that without more of Jesus in my life that list will just keep getting longer and longer, but with more of him it will become shorter as I grow in Christian maturity.

Why? Well, if you believe that verse, then in my weakness Jesus will make me strong, make my ways right, and in that I will glorify God and see life as he has it planned for me, which is more promising that any other alternative, because it will be eternal.


Wow, off on a tangent there some, but that's how I feel and time and time again it is revealed to me through numerous avenues. Just can't argue it anymore, and I don't want to.

So, other things in my life, well I have been seeing someone a little over a month now and she is truly amazing. I am just blessed and overjoyed to have a sister in Christ and a friend first and foremost in the person I am dating. I am really happy.

Work is good, I got promoted to the sales team at the end of my first full month, which I think is very good, and my schedule is full to the point that I am having to try and drop some clients so that I have more time to go out and find new business for our other trainers. I am moving into a new apartment in November, same complex, next building over. That is kind of exciting, but also sucks since I just moved in.

My Dad has been in the hospital recently with a sciatic nerve acting up, which really scared me. To know that your family is sick and hurt and there is nothing you can do is really humbling. Thankfully all is ok for now and he should be out in a day or 2. Big G will be ok.

One last thing, the US Open Triathlon is this coming weekend, which Lauren and I are both competing in. If you pray, please pray we both finish and especially that I survive the 800M swim that precedes the 40K bike ride and 5K run. Or if you see me, just shoot me. It would be less painful. Seriously though I am really excited for the race and can't wait. It's gonna be wicked pissah. Don't ask.

Until my next update, which will hopefully be after next weekend and accompanied by some pics of me kicking some tail, take care and God bless.